Nomethod has announced that they'll be doing a number of digital re-releases from the old Chalksounds archive via the new imprint Faux Pas. First up on October 15 will be Soviac's albums "GMC out in the fields" and "Trilogy sexlife rodeo friscotti" plus The Price of Ink's self-titled EP.

Essential first-wave Swedish hardcore that's raging fast, surprisingly melodic and also a heckuva lot of fun. Even better, the rare tracks culled from various cassette releases, live sessions and so on are every bit as good as the band's all-too-few official vinyl recordings, limited to a mere split 7" with fellow Swedes Panik and the first volume of the "Really fast" comp series. Hopefully most folks who fit the target audience for this LP will have already picked it up by now, but for dabblers there's always Spotify.- Avi Roig

Check out the Facebook page for "Den Svenska Synthen", an upcoming book by Bengt Rahm (one of the founders of Labrador Records) on the Swedish synth scene including interviews with tons of bands, labels and more: https://www.facebook.com/DenSvenskaSynthen
Swedish-only unfortunately, but that's the way these things go.

Yep, the crusties will love this! Hombre Malo kick off proceedings off and, to be honest, they do take a while to hit their stride. Once they do though, they just click and you're right in there with them, tearing shit up. The first three tracks are essentially punked-up stoners while closing track "Burial ground for a past life" showcases the Oslo-based sludgers at their finest. The punky stuff might sound cool and all, but when Hombre Malo hit mid-pace before slowing to a drawn-out, doomed halt, it's as pummelling as a bag of pool balls to the cranium. More of this in the future will level cities.

I take it Spain's Desert Icons have listened to a fair bit of Thin Lizzy in the past. The bits on here that do sound like a metalized Lizzy are the downers here. They just lift and brighten the atmosphere a bit too much in something that has the potential to be dark and nasty... in an outstandingly metal way. Out of three songs, opening track "The search" is Alchemist meets Thin Lizzy and the second song, "Animal rage" is Immortal meets Thin Lizzy. And the Lizzy bits are everywhere in both. Closing track "Time for the storm" is the best of the bunch here by miles and it's killer. And there's no Thin Lizzy in it at all! It showcases a band with an identity of their own who sound so fluid when they just run with it rather than trying to show people that they can play like Thin Lizzy. NB. I think this is the most I've ever written Thin Lizzy in my life.- John Norby